''Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington'' was an 1877

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

case on the status of

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of ab ...

to land in New Zealand. The court held that native title—ownership of land by

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

prior to 1840—could not be addressed by the municipal courts. The ruling itself explicitly set precedent for ignoring the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

, regarding it a "simple nullity" for domestic law. A landmark ruling, ''Wi Parata'' would allow for Crown grants to alienate Māori from their land in the following decades. In 1877, Wi Parata, a wealthy Māori farmer and member of the Executive Council, described by the ''

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online ...

'' as having been "an astute politician and skilled orator and debater", took

Octavius Hadfield Octavius Hadfield (6 October 1814 – 11 December 1904) was Archdeacon of Kāpiti, Bishop of Wellington from 1870 to 1893 and Primate of New Zealand from 1890 to 1893. He was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for thirty years. H ...

, the

Bishop of Wellington ThDiocese of Wellingtonis one of the thirteen dioceses and ''hui amorangi'' (Māori bishoprics) of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area between the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand up to ...

, to the Supreme Court (renamed in 1980 to the High Court), over a breach of oral contract between the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

and the

Ngāti Toa Ngāti Toa, also called Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori people, Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) based in the southern North Island and the northern South Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of ...

, and a breach of the principles of the

. Ngāti Toa had provided land to the church in 1848 in exchange for a promise that a school for young Ngāti Toa people would be built by the church. However no school was built, and in 1850 the church obtained a Crown grant to the land, without the consent of the

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

. The case was a failure for Parata – Chief Justice James Prendergast ruled that the Treaty of Waitangi was a "simple nullity", having been signed by "primitive barbarians". Prendergast regarded the treaty insignificant to domestic law. The ruling had far-reaching consequences, as it was invoked as precedent during subsequent claims brought for breaches of the treaty, well into the twentieth century.

Notes

References

"The three precedents of Wi Parata"
2004, Canterbury Law Review *

See also

Notes

References

Further reading